Re: [docbook] Add topic element to DocBook?

[doug <doug.duboulay@gmail.com>]

On Thursday 26 October 2006 22:59, Norman Walsh wrote:
> However, DocBook has never been principally about imposing a
> particular documentation style on authors. For the most part, we leave
> stylistic choices to authors.
>
> With this in mind, I think we should consider, perhaps once and for
> all, whether we want to add a <topic> element to DocBook.
>
> If we decide to do so, I think something along the following lines
> fits into the design of DocBook:
>
> 1. Add a <topic> element with the same content model as <section>
>    except that where section allows (sect1|section|simplesect), we
>    allow <topic>. So a topic contains subtopics analagous to the way a
>    section contains subsections.
>

I was trying to use DocBook to document a hierarchical datastructure.
I tried to use <section> elements for every node and <simplesect> for 
grouping various aspects of the descriptions of each node (which worked well 
for chunking). It wasn't really a very nice fit though because for branch 
nodes the simplesect descriptions precede the sub section children nodes, 
which is I believe, a violation of the schema.  So for my purposes it would 
be nice if <topic>s allowed both section and sub topic children, in the form: 

    <topic>
      <section/>
      <section/>
      <topic>
         <section/>
         <section/>
           <topic>
             <section/>
             <section/>
           </topic>
           <topic>
              <section/>
              <section/>
           </topic>
           ...

Unless I misunderstand the envisaged content model?

Thanks
Doug